Get yr blood pumping with this album, just in time for the vampires
Welcome to the Rock n Rol. This is Viva Voce's new album Get Yr Blood Sucked Out. It features the awesome single 'From The Devil Himself', plus much, much more. After the male-led 'Believer', which has some real rocking distorted guitar, then the female-led 'When Planets Collide' which is a little aural treat, comes the single itself, starting like Oasis's 'Lyla' and continuing on with it's cool rolling bassline and toms that follow the pattern, it's something of a force to be reckoned with. It is pretty much the epitome of this band's sound and therefore a great choice as the single, but there's so much more to the album than just this stonker. Throughout you're aware that you've hit the good stuff with Viva Voce, their sound has an erstwhile edge, combining the kicks of the sixties, with the riffs of the seventies and a bit of the new that's followed since, with totally their own sometimes jazzy, sometimes poppy, spin on things.
'We Do Not Fuck Around' is similar in its style to Arcade Fire's 'Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)', a good choice of vocal styling to sings those choral lyrics (a repetition of the title) through. 'Drown Them Out' has a lovely feelgood vibe to it that's soul-relaxing and just plain nice. 'Faster Than A Dead Horse' drags The Beach Boys kicking and screaming into this century and 'Special Thing' sounds like the slow song that never made it onto Beck's Midnite Vultures.
Yes, this band certainly have it, and an 'it' has finally emerged now in this post millennial mess of music, there's a scene that's certainly started, and I like it. Think Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Viva Voce, all this kind of stuff has a similar musical hook, now it's only up to someone to name it and the 00s might actually mean something in musical history. I've never been one for generalising though, so let's continue on with the task at hand...
The album begins to close with the sporadically spacey 'Helicopter', that takes you into regions so far away the earth is but a spec from your viewing lens, think Smashing Pumpkins round a campfire. And then there's 'How To Nurse A Bruised Ego' to sail off with, big Gershwin 'Rhapsody in Blue' introduction, flows into a smooth Eric Clapton-like solo accompanied by Richard Wright-esque (circa 'Great Gig In The Sky) piano and then continues on in that very vein with a few more cosmic trippings layered over the top and haunting vocals that creep into your head and set up camp there. Another zone, another dimension...
And that's a good place to leave the listener for sure. After the album's climax one is left thinking, 'by golly, that was something good alright.' It's true, check out Viva Voce, if you haven't already heard of them by word of mouth. (Hee hee hee.)